Minority leader colorfully describes committee assignments

SANTA FE — The state Senate minority leader, in an unguarded moment Monday afternoon, said the committees he serves on are "the same old horse (bleep)."

Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, made the comment during a public committee meeting that he thought was unattended by the press. After realizing he was wrong about that, Ingle asked that his remark not be reported.

Ingle was in the Senate Committees' Committee when it turned to routine business about allotments of postage, letterhead and business cards for senators.

Ingle said he did not need anything. A clerk asked him if he was a member of any new committees, thereby necessitating a change in his letterhead and cards.

"I've got the same old horsesh--," Ingle said.

Sen. Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, the majority leader, was among more than a half-dozen senators at the meeting who heard Ingle's comment. Sanchez tried to help Ingle by suggesting that he did not realize a reporter was staffing the committee meeting, held in the close confines of Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen's office. Sanchez suggested that the comment be considered something not for the record.

Ingle, 65, has been a senator for 28 years. Re-elected in November to an eighth term, he represents Chaves, Curry, De Baca, Lea and Roosevelt counties.

The committees that Ingle serves on are Rules, Indian and Cultural Affairs, and the Committees' Committee, where all of his trouble started.